The 1990 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 45th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. The final was held at the

Odsal Stadium Odsal Stadium (known as Bartercard Odsal Stadium for sponsorship reasons) is a multi-purpose stadium, multipurpose stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The stadium is currently the home of Bradford Bulls rugby league football club and ...

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, England. It was the 28th and last time the world final would be held in England under the traditional single meeting format. Sweden's Per Jonsson won his only World Individual Championship to become the first Swedish World Champion since

Anders Michanek Anders Michanek (born 30 May 1943) is a Swedish Speedway rider. In 1974 he won the Speedway World Championship in his Swedish homeland with a maximum score of 15 points. He earned 101 caps for the Sweden national speedway team. Career Michane ...

in 1974 and became the first rider to win both the Under-21 and

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

World Championships, having previously won the 1985 Under-21 World Championship. Jonsson defeated Shawn Moran from the United States in a run-off after both finished the meeting on 13 points. Moran was later disqualified by the

FIM FIM may refer to: Organizations and companies * Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation * Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States * Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media * ...

for failing a drug test taken at the Overseas Final. After Moran's disqualification, the FIM did not adjust the rankings, leaving the second-place position vacant in official records for the 1990 World Final. Australian youngster

Todd Wiltshire Todd Wiltshire (born 26 September 1968 in Bankstown, New South Wales) is an Australian former motorcycle speedway rider, who competed at the highest level of the sport, finishing a career best third in the 1990 Individual Speedway World Champi ...

, believed by many judges to be one who would be making up the numbers in his first World Final, finished third with 12 points after winning his first two rides. After having won each World Final since 1984, including five 1-2 finishes and taking all podium places in

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

, the 1990 World Final saw no Danish riders finishing on the podium for the first time since 1983. Defending champion Hans Nielsen, the only Danish rider in the field after Jan O. Pedersen was sidelined due to injury, finished fourth with 11 points.

First round

British qualifiers

*Top 32 to British-Semi finals

Second round

New Zealand qualification

*First 16 to New Zealand final * +Thorpe awarded title after Ross refused to ride in the race-off

Australian qualification

*Top 16 to Australian final

British semi-finals

*Top 16 to British final

Third round

Continental preliminary round

*Riders progress to Continental quarter-finals

Swedish qualification

*Top 8 in each heat to Swedish final

British final

*Top 10 to Commonwealth final

New Zealand final

Ruapuna Speedway,

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

*3 February, top 2 to Commonwealth final

Australian final

Brisbane Exhibition Ground The Brisbane Showgrounds (formerly known as the Brisbane Exhibition Ground) is a multi-purpose venue located in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Australia. Established in 1875, it hosts more than 250 events each year, the largest being the Royal Queen ...

*13 January, top 3 (+1 other seeded) to Commonwealth final

Fourth round

Continental quarter-finals

*Top 32 to Continental semi-finals

Danish Final

*Top 6 to the Nordic final

Swedish Final

*R1 (15 May, Vetlanda Motorstadion, Vetlanda) *R2 (16 May, Norrköping Motorstadion,

Norrköping Norrköping ( , ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Lin ...

) *R3 (17 May,

Avesta Motorstadion Avesta Motorstadion also called the Arena Avesta or Stadion Brovalla is a 12,000 capacity motorcycle speedway track located 10 kilometres south of Krylbo and Avesta. The stadium is on the Swedish national road 70, in a remote area surrounded b ...

Avesta The Avesta (, Book Pahlavi: (), Persian language, Persian: ()) is the text corpus of Zoroastrian literature, religious literature of Zoroastrianism. All its texts are composed in the Avestan language and written in the Avestan alphabet. Mod ...

) * Top 6 to Nordic Final

Commonwealth Final

*Top 12 plus 1 reserve to the Overseas final

North American Final

*2 June 1990 * Veterans Memorial Stadium,

Long Beach Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

*Top 4 to the Overseas final plus 1 reserve

Fifth round

Continental semi-finals

Overseas Final

*Top 9 to the Intercontinental final

Nordic Final

*9 June 1990 * Motorstadium,

Linköping Linköping ( , ) is a city in southern Sweden, with around 167,000 inhabitants as of 2024. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Chu ...

*Top 7 to the Intercontinental Final plus 1 reserve

Sixth round

Intercontinental Final

*Top 11 plus 1 reserve to World final

Continental Final

*12 August 1990 *

Motodrom Halbemond The Motodrom Halbemond is a 34,000-capacity motorcycle speedway stadium in Halbemond, located about 5 kilometres southeast of Norden, Germany. There is a motocross course adjacent to the stadium directly east of the Motodrom. The venue is used ...

Norden Norden is a Scandinavian and German word, directly translated as "the North". It may refer to: Places England * Norden, Basingstoke, a ward of Basingstoke and Deane * Norden, Dorset, a hamlet near Corfe Castle * Norden, Greater Manchester, a vill ...

*Top 5 to the World final plus 1 reserve

World final

*1 September 1990 *

Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of the World Speedway Championship''. Stroud: Tempus Publishing.

Classification

''* Henrik Gustafsson and Antonín Kasper Jr. replaced injured qualifiers Jan O. Pedersen and Gerd Riss''

Notes:

:a. Shawn Moran scored 13 points and lost the run-off to Per Jonsson. However, Moran had failed a random drug and alcohol test taken three months earlier at the Overseas Final, and was subsequently disqualified from second place. The

did not upgrade the standings and the official records show no second place rider.

References

{{Speedway Grand Prix seasons

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

Individual Speedway Individual Speedway 1990 in British motorsport Speedway competitions in the United Kingdom